Activity Blog

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Welcome to another brand new series covering Dinosaur fun, much like pirates dinosaurs never seem to really go out of fashion but it does have spikes in popularity. Over the next few blog posts we are going to cover dozens of fun crafts, games, recipes and party ideas you can use to either throw an amazing Dino Party or just have some fun at home with your little Triceratops. Lets kick things off nice and easy with some colouring pages.

How about becoming your favourite dinosaur?

This set feature three popular dinosaurs, two different coloured T-Rex and one Triceratops masks, of course they are Free and you can print off as many as needed.

Just click on the image opposite for full colour masks you can print out and make or if you are feeling more adventurous try the blank Dino masks below and colour/decorate them yourself. This would be a great activity at the start of a Dinosaur party whilst all the guests are arriving.

Dinosaur Egg Hunt

This is a great game idea that’s also a little bit different. It uses these toy dinosaur eggs that actually hatch! Just click on the pictures to find links to them. Just hide the eggs around the hall, room, house or garden and give the kids a bucket or container to go and find them. Make sure you count how many eggs you put out so that you can count them back in afterwards.

Dinosaur Egg Piñata

This is actually very easy to make, if you have a weekend day free you’ll easily be able to get it done and the kids will love it. Make sure you also check out our piñata guide for all the tips and tricks to playing a successful game.

Paste Recipe

Let’s see if you can keep up with me on this one….?

1 part flour

1 part water

a big squirt of Elmer’s Glue

That’s it. I was a little skeptical but that stuff works so well, is inexpensive, you probably have it on hand, AND dries hard.

DIY Dino Egg Piñata Supplies

Paper strips: newspaper is great, but I had this packing paper which worked perfectly as well. It needs to be thinner and softer than copy paper.

20″ Balloon: this forms the base. Blow it up to the appropriate size. I bought a 20″ clear balloon.

Tissue Paper: I used white squares of tissue paper as the final “smoothing layer”.

Flour Paste from “recipe” above

White paint: acrylic paint works great

Green paint: for the spots! There’s something about green spots that just screams dinosaur.

Foam paint brushes: They carry them at the Dollar Store as well

Twine: for the handle

Duct Tape: to attach handle, close the hole, and reinforce the center

Step 1: Blow up Balloon

Blow your balloon up to the desired size. The 20″ balloon ended up being quite large and I didn’t even blow it up all the way. The bigger it is the more stuff you will feel like you need to buy to fill it up. Use a couple pieces of Duct tape to secure the tied end down because I could NOT get the soggy paper to keep it from popping up! {I got too excited and missed photos of these first few steps. I’m so sorry but you’ll have to use your imagination! Good thing they are pretty simple steps.}

Step 2: Add your Strips

Set your balloon up in a bowl, covered in saran wrap, large enough to keep it stable but small enough that it doesn’t fit inside. You want it to perch on top so the paper strips aren’t damaged inside the bowl while drying. This is a rather cathartic exercise that I quite enjoyed. You will get paste up to your elbows and all over your hands. It feels so good to get messy sometimes. Just dip each strip into the paste and let the excess drip off or use your fingers to squeegee it off and place on the balloon. Continue adding strips until you have the top half of the balloon covered.

Step 3: Let Dry and Repeat

Give it a bit of time to dry and turn it over. Repeat process of adding strips until balloon is completely covered. I liked putting down 2 layers and then giving it a chance to dry before adding another two. I think I ended up with 6 layers of the packing paper. It is a labor of love that you will want to plan ahead for. *Warning: As the paste dries all the liquid goes to the bottom of the balloon in the bowl. This end will be extra soggy and can be easily torn if you aren’t careful in turning it over. The saran wrap helps keep it from sticking to the bowl.

Turn over until both ends are completely dry.

Step 4: Add the handle

I used twine to hang this bad boy but if you’d rather not see it a heavy fishing line would work fine. I chose to secure it on either side with duct tape. My son even chose this awesome camouflage pattern! I was worried about the bumps of the twine but after a few more layers of paper strips it wasn’t a big deal at all. When adding strips to a dry layer make sure your strips are extra gooey. Smooth them down with your fingers and continue applying until the area is covered. Then let dry. Again.

Step 5 : Fill the Piñata

It’s not a piñata without candy and there’s no candy without a hole. I used a very sharp knife to create an X in the wall of my egg. It’s rather satisfying to hear the balloon pop inside when you do this! Make the hole just large enough for your goodies. I made mine a little bigger than necessary. Cover the hole with another piece of duct tape and continue with the paper mache. You are an expert in paper mache right about now.

Step 6: Paint The Egg

With the white tissue paper the white paint isn’t really necessary unless you are a crazy perfectionist like I am. But I really loved painting the green circles. I drew them on with a pencil first, then painted them carefully. It took two coats so be patient.

Thats it for the first Dinosaur blog post but make sure you come back next week for more Dino fun. Plus we have loads more ideas to match any theme all over the website.